I couldn't find anything on the subject in the wiki or using the search.
Specifically:
How much power does it draw, depending on armor? Does it draw power proportional to armor segment hit points? Does it also draw power when there's nothing to repair, like many devices using 10% regardless? Does it draw more power for non-Novaya armor segments?

How fast does it repair? Is the repair rate proportional to armor segment hit points or does it repair higher tech levels slower, like patch spiders (and patcher arms?)? Are Novaya armor segments repaired faster, and if yes, by how much?

What's the benefit of enhancing it (I got +20% with ingenuity)? Does it repair faster or draw less power or no change at all? Can you enhance it with shield enhancement ROMs or quantum cubes or longzhu spheres?

Regeneration rates are not always steady. For some rates, armor may regenerate faster at times, then stop for a while, then resume regeneration. Think go-stop-go-stop. (It is highly annoying, and it would be nice if modders can set regeneration for armor as done for the Lazarus shield.)

Enhancing the repairer does nothing useful aside from making it worth more if you want to sell it. Because it is treated as a shield for all purposes, things that should not affect it do (e.g., shut down by meteorsteel, enhanced by Ingenuity or nanoforged etherium armor).

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Thank you. Looks like at least the two higher Novaya armors draw the same power other armor segments of the same level. This also answers my question whether it's better to use +resist or +hp on armor segments when using the Novaya repairer; +hp doesn't increase the repair rate. Does the Novaya repairer also draw some power when there's nothing to repair?

And, in your experience, is it useful to swap to neutronium or light Iocrym armor in favor of advanced Novaya armor and the Novaya armor repairer? What's the penalty for the manticore using a shield (I read 50% hp somewhere, does it also affect downtime or regeneration or power draw)?

Enhancements meant for shields probably do not work on the Novaya repairer. Before 1.6, the repairer was treated as a miscellaneous device that used a shield slot. Now, it is treated as a shield, even though enhancements like +resist or +hp do not apply.

Manticore's penalty for shields is a flat -20%. The penalty is additive, not multiplicative. If you enhance a shield to +150%, the Manticore penalty would reduce such a shield to +130%. The penalty only affects maximum hp.

I played Manticore little in Corporate Command. That said, my playstyle preference is towards big shields as primary defense and armor for special properties (usually solar armor until Ares become common). I would probably slap a shield on the Manticore sooner or later and eat the -20% penalty. Late in the game, I often carry two to four patch spiders for armor repair (between battles). I would use level 11 armor plus shield over advanced Novaya armor and repairer if given the choice.

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Brzelius wrote:Thank you. Looks like at least the two higher Novaya armors draw the same power other armor segments of the same level. This also answers my question whether it's better to use +resist or +hp on armor segments when using the Novaya repairer; +hp doesn't increase the repair rate. Does the Novaya repairer also draw some power when there's nothing to repair?

And, in your experience, is it useful to swap to neutronium or light Iocrym armor in favor of advanced Novaya armor and the Novaya armor repairer? What's the penalty for the manticore using a shield (I read 50% hp somewhere, does it also affect downtime or regeneration or power draw)?

My Manticore permadeath used the Advanced Novaya, IIRC. It's surprisingly good armor, though it likely doesn't hold up well against the Phobos's archcannon.

The repairer does appear to drain a small amount of power when there's nothing to repair, but it's not worth turning it off in between battles - it's nowhere near as expensive to use as a shield.

Yea, I'm at Jiang's Star now, have advanced Novaya armor installed and am becoming increasingly worried about the lack of further upgrades and the Ares Plasma Archcannon. Did you completely avoid the Phoboi?

Brzelius wrote:Yea, I'm at Jiang's Star now, have advanced Novaya armor installed and am becoming increasingly worried about the lack of further upgrades and the Ares Plasma Archcannon. Did you completely avoid the Phoboi?

Sadly, pretty much. You can howitzer - kite them well enough, and Domina powers will do them in as easily as ever, but I don't see any other way of fighting them with the Manticore. It just doesn't have the firepower or defenses to brute force a fight against a Phobos, and it's not really the sort of ship that can outmaneuver it while firing an IM90 either(not that that strategy hasn't been heavily weakened since the advent of internal HP).

If anyone's got a solid strategy for killing dreadnoughts with the Manticore, I'd be interested to hear it.

Advanced Novaya armor will likely fail in one shot from an APA. If you're going up against a Phobos, find a replacement shield, at least temporarily. The Phobos focuses on burst damage, which is pretty much the Novaya series' weakness. A full stream of lightning turrets can also eat through Advanced Novaya armor in one burst, if you can't dodge enough of it.

The Advanced Novaya armor combined with the repairer can be rather good against Iocrym sentinels, though. You'd still get boiled pretty fast, but not as fast as usual. Better than any shields except a few of the best, I think.

sun1404 wrote:Advanced Novaya armor will likely fail in one shot from an APA. If you're going up against a Phobos, find a replacement shield, at least temporarily. The Phobos focuses on burst damage, which is pretty much the Novaya series' weakness. A full stream of lightning turrets can also eat through Advanced Novaya armor in one burst, if you can't dodge enough of it.

That was essentially my experience.

The Advanced Novaya armor combined with the repairer can be rather good against Iocrym sentinels, though. You'd still get boiled pretty fast, but not as fast as usual. Better than any shields except a few of the best, I think.

I basically shrugged them off in the few short instances where they managed to hit me.

Those things really need some kind of buff. As is, they're free points and endgame loot and stand no chance of seriously harming the player.

They can be dangerous if the player is determined to save the research stations (which I am) and too confident in their defenses (which I sometimes am), which would result in the player trying to tank the Fracture for too long.

I actually just now managed to finish the game with permadeath honored without ever installing a shield and without avoiding the Phoboi (link). This is the highest score without using a shield.
I installed heavy ithalium armor where available and filled the rest with octocarbide armor, just used up all available patch spiders, avoided lots of incoming fire with the longreach I autocannon (essential for killing the quantumsphere disintegrator spheres). Heavy ithalium armor +50% can take three hits before collapsing, octocarbide can take two. I killed several Phoboi, usually by circling them while firing from my heavy NAMI or Rasiermesser launcher (S3 Medusa / M2 Vulcan or Gotha-400 seeker missiles, which I replicated in a Teraton fabricator). I took several hits from the ares plasma archcannon and had to rely on Desperate Escape a few times (usually while distracted by other ships in the area), but it worked pretty reliably otherwise.